Background: Studies assessing post-activation potentiation (PAP) responses comparing male and female athletes are conflicting. Objectives: This study investigated whether differences exist in the duration for optimal post-preload stimulus measures on performance in male and female team sport athletes. Methods: Twenty-four participants (12 males and 12 females) participated in the study. Two familiarization sessions were conducted with each participant. Then, three experimental conditions were implemented, incorporating a standardized warm-up, followed by back squats (conditioning exercises) and varying passive recovery times of 4 min (PAP4), 8 min (PAP8), or 12 min (PAP12). Following the recovery, players performed three physical performance measures related to team sports: A countermovement jump, a modified agility t-test, and a 20-m linear sprint. The significance level was set at P < 0.05. Results: All performance measures were significantly greater in PAP12 than in PAP4 and PAP8 co.....

494 hits

The chemical composition of the essential oil of Rothmannia schoemannii Tirveng. (Rubiaceae) was investigated for the first time. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and fully characterised by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In total, 28 components were identified in the essential oil, which made up 99.6% of the total oil. The essential oil is composed mainly of ?-eudesmol (30.8%), ?-cadinol (18.2%), caryophyllene oxide (6.5%), ?-cadinene (5.5%), and ?-eudesmol (5.4%). The essential oil exhibited cytotoxic activity against J5 (human hepatocellular carcinoma) and A549 (human lung adenocarcinoma) cells with IC50 values of 112.5 and 98.5 ug/mL, respectively. 2023, INNOVHUB - Stazioni Sperimentali per l'Industria S.r.l - Area Oli e Grassi. All rights reserved...

219 hits

The aim of this research is to formulate activated carbon monolith from hazardous waste of cigarette filter butts (CFB) for electrode material monolith design in solid-state supercapacitor application. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) was selected for activation. The ratio of CFB to KOH varied in terms of weight between 1:2 and 1:4, thereby obtaining activated cigarette filter carbon (ACFC). The carbon that has been obtained is designed to be solidly in the form of an additive-free monolith. Monolith-activated carbon is physically characterized to examine thermal decomposition profiles (pre-carbonized), structure, composition, morphology, surface area adsorption, and electrochemical measurements. The optimum precursor was marked with high wettability with self-O-doped of 5.44%.in carbon content of 94.56%. Activated carbon electrodes prepared from ACFCs showed an optimum specific capacitance of ~87.17 F g-1, which is a more ecologically responsible method of producing supercapacitors. 2023 The.....

502 hits

Most integrals in Localised Boundary Domain Integral Equations (LBDIEs) comprise singularities. This paper aims to produce numerical solutions of the LBDIEs for the Partial Differential Equations with variable coefficients. The singularities of the boundary integrals in LBDIEs will be handled by using a semi-analytic for logarithmic singularity and a semi-quadratic analytic method for r?2 singularity. Whereas the singular domain integrals are handled by using the Duffy transformation. The LBDIEs that we consider are associated with the Neumann problem, which can be solved with a condition. If it can be solved, the solution is, however, unique up to an additive constant. We add a perturbation operator to the LBDIEs to convert the LBDIE to a uniquely solvable equation. The perturbed integral operator leads the perturbed LBDIEs to a dense matrix system that disable the use of methods in solving sparse matrix system. We solve the system of linear equations by Lower-Upper (LU) decomposition.....

394 hits

The focal aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between government expenditure on health and administration on education, and insurance demand in Malaysia. Specifically, this study examined the short- and long-run impacts of gross domestic product, inflation rate, government health expenditure, government education expenditure and real interest rate on insurance demand in the country. The study focus on Malaysia, was mainly due to the substantial income generated through insurance demand since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Time series data, spanning December 1990 to December 2022, were utilised. This study adopted the linear ARDL approach to identify the short- and long-run impact between observed variables. Specifically, the study examined whether the observed variables significantly affect insurance demand in Malaysia. The initial estimation model was subsequently divided onto two specification model, namely health model and education model. The results suggest that the h.....

512 hits

Purpose: The aim of this study is to look into the factors that influence the level of ethics and integrity in Malaysian public sector. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a quantitative approach by delivering 128 questionnaires to Federal Chief Integrity Officers (CIOs), of which 83 were received and usable. The data were analysed using multiple regression analysis and descriptive statistics. Findings: The quality of CIO in terms of competency, work performance and ethical climate has significant impact on the level of ethics and integrity. According to the study, having certified CIOs who can effectively perform their function and promote and nurture a transparent ethical climate are critical for the Malaysian Federal government to maintain a high level of ethics. Employees who have a high level of ethics are more likely to stay with the organization. Practical implications: In addition, this study will assist policymakers in taking the required actions to strengthen public .....

464 hits

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the initiative of low-price hotels, budget hotels, in Malaysia, to restore the financial sustainability through empowering the digital marketplace strategy in the tourism resilience sector. Giving an open accessibility to customers for achieving their venue with a low price and have a friendly service comes from initiating the digital marketplace arrangement. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on what is the importance of the digital marketplace strategy for tourism resilience in the pandemic age and how is it important. The data come from qualitative interview from one couple, husband and wife, regarding the budget hotel operation practice in the city of Sri Iskandar, the Perak state of Malaysia. Findings: The findings revealed the importance of initiating the strategy of digital marketplace in enabling the customers personalised decision towards the tourism destination they prefer based on their needs of low-cost and proper service. Th.....

388 hits

The most significant task for a teacher is to keep students engaged in the classroom. Teachers can use group contingencies like independent, dependent, and interdependent to assist students in being more involved in classroom tasks. This study identifies the effects of group contingencies in regulating students' engagement in ESL classroom tasks. Samples comprise 27 Form 4 mixed-ability students from a secondary school in Selangor, Malaysia. The research used a mixed-method approach that included both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings revealed positive motivation, task retention, and teamwork promotion outcomes. Student behaviour was found to have a detrimental impact, particularly among the weaker students, who were boisterous and essentially riders. Interdependent group contingency has been determined to be the most successful method for regulating student engagement in ESL classes. This study suggests that students be divided into interdependent groups to ensure tha.....

615 hits

Efficient evaluation for machine learning (ML)-based intrusion detection systems (IDSs) for federated learning (FL) in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMTs) environment falls under the standardisation and multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. Thus, this study is developing an MCDM framework for standardising and benchmarking the ML-based IDSs used in the FL architecture of IoMT applications. In the methodology, firstly, the evaluation criteria of ML-based IDSs are standardised using the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM). Secondly, the evaluation decision matrix (DM) is formulated based on the intersection of standardised evaluation criteria and a list of ML-based IDSs. Such formulation is achieved using a dataset with 125,973 records, and each record comprises 41 features. Thirdly, the integration of MCDM methods is formulated to determine the importance weights of the main and sub standardised security and performance criteria, followed by benchmarking and selecting the optimal ML-b.....

438 hits

Pavement strategy is critical for achieving sustainable transportation. However, the presence of many evaluation criteria, criteria tradeoffs, criteria conflict, and criteria importance categorize the evaluation and selection of pavement strategies under complex multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. To date, no study has presented an evaluation framework for selecting the most optimal pavement strategy to be utilized as a way to achieve sustainable transportation considering multicriteria evaluation of pavement strategies and sustainable solutions. This article presents a pavement strategy selection based on a new extension of fuzzy MCDM methods. The methodology is developed in two phases. First, the evaluation decision matrix is formulated on the basis of intersecting the evaluation criteria and pavement strategies list. Second, the proposed MCDM methods are developed: multilayer dual hesitant fuzzy weighted zero inconsistency (DH-FWZIC) to assign weights to the pavements eva.....

526 hits